Puerh is sun-dried, while green tea is dried by heat. For Puerh rubbing is weaker and slower than greens, so brewed cup tastes somewhat different than greens.

I think it's variety that matters, Yunnan is like jungle of tea trees, some are poisonous because they are so wild variaties which are meant self-protective from plucking, they share similar genes with sinensis assamica (Big Leaf Variety) while green tea is bohea (Small Leaf Variety) which is spread in most of China, Korea and Japan..correct me if I'm wrong..

That must be why many old ancient complained about bitterness of Puerh, but it could be a sign of high amount of polyphenol too, than greens.

If Raw Puerh is not good/healthy to be consumed a lot, then shouldn't Green tea too?

The whole "raw puerh is unhealthy " irks me to no end. I've yet to see any scientific foundation behind it.

In the U.S., the early-to-mid 1900s, people thought that breastmilk was unhealthy for babies. In the days before formula, parents typically gave their babies canned evaporated milk because it was largely assumed that breastmilk was unhealthy. When peer-reviewed studies were actually done, we realized that it was the other way around.

I've never seen any reputable source that claimed that raw Pu-erh is unhealthy. If anything, the only discussion that I've heard that sounded more plausible was that the process used to "ripen" Pu-erh to produce "shu" Pu-erh is actually less healthy.

I know that personally, I like raw or sheng Pu-erh (aged or not, young or old) much better than the ripened / shu Pu-erh. Obviously, there's a lot of variability in both and I've had a few shu Pu-erh that I thought were exceptionally good and that I liked better than other sheng Pu-erh that was on the lower end of what I like, but...as a general pattern I notice a strong preference for the raw stuff.

Not only do I prefer the taste, but I like the way I feel after drinking it. The raw stuff is definitely stronger though, especially when it's of a similar age--the "ripening" process does take a bit of the edge off, so maybe the comments about health are just referring to the fact that it's a bit harsher or more powerful so you might not be quite as well off drinking quite as much of it.

I was just on Wikipedia trying to find out why sheng puerh gets better with age while green tea deteriorates. The only difference in processing is that the puerh leaves are sun-dried by laying them out in the sun briefly in a "wilting" to remove excess water before roasting to "kill the green" and prevent further oxidization. So they are actually allowed to oxidize a bitwhereas green tea is rushed to the pan. Maybe the fact that raw puerh is oxidized leads some to believe that it isn't healthy in the long run. I also read a firsthand account in a blog (puerhshop.com) that fresh maocha is delicious but becomes bland and flat tasting but completely turns around after 4-5 years and ages faster than a beeng cha. Also that the alleged bitterness of a young sheng is due to it's coming from plants other than the wild old trees, which are the only ones we should even consider.

In the U.S., the early-to-mid 1900s, people thought that breastmilk was unhealthy for babies. In the days before formula, parents typically gave their babies canned evaporated milk because it was largely assumed that breastmilk was unhealthy. When peer-reviewed studies were actually done, we realized that it was the other way around.

So, I suppose that means that sheng is my breastmilk. Mmmmm.

This claim is mostly based on traditional Chinese medicine theories. If you don't buy it, you can ignore it.

In the U.S., the early-to-mid 1900s, people thought that breastmilk was unhealthy for babies. In the days before formula, parents typically gave their babies canned evaporated milk because it was largely assumed that breastmilk was unhealthy. When peer-reviewed studies were actually done, we realized that it was the other way around.

So, I suppose that means that sheng is my breastmilk. Mmmmm.

This claim is mostly based on traditional Chinese medicine theories. If you don't buy it, you can ignore it.

In fact, traditional Chinese medicine theories never indicate young sheng is unhealthy. It's a misunderstanding. The key to Chinese traditional medicine is, it treats a person instead of one organ or one symptom. Nothing is absolutely healthy or unhealthy to all people.

gingkoseto wrote:In fact, traditional Chinese medicine theories never indicate young sheng is unhealthy. It's a misunderstanding. The key to Chinese traditional medicine is, it treats a person instead of one organ or one symptom. Nothing is absolutely healthy or unhealthy to all people.

Well, sort of true, but the extreme coldness of young sheng is generally not good for most people's constitution. There are exceptions, but not too much.

I sort of see the distinction as similar to that between regular cheese and "blue" cheese.

In both cases, they go through a form of processing to turn the young unprocessed tea leaves into processed tea. The difference is that pu'er then goes through an additional stage of processing where it is exposed to fungal cultures that modify its flavor.

I'd imagine that any sort of criticisms of raw pu'er most likely have to do with folks who age it irresponsibly. Pu'er isn't just moldy tea, after all. It has to be aged in a controlled manner, with the right micro-organisms present.

I don't think anybody is criticizing aged pu erh. Once its aged its no longer considered "cold" in TCM. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this assumption.

"The Physiological Functions of the Human Body

The Yin-Yang theory considers the normal vital activities of the human body to be the result of the relative balance between yin and yang. In traditional Chinese medicine, the physiological functions of the organs and their substances are inseparably related to yin and yang. For example, the activities (yang) of a particular organ are based on that organ's substance (yin) and when either of these aspects is absent, the other cannot function. Thus the result of physiological activities is to constantly promote the transformation of yang into yin essence. If yin and yang cannot maintain relative balance and interaction, they will separate from each other ending the life that depends upon them. As the Suwen says, "When yin keeps balance with yang and both maintain a normal condition of qi, then health will be high-spirited. A separation of yin and yang will lead to the exhaustion of essential qi."

The Pathological Changes of the Human Body

The Yin-Yang theory holds that disease is a result of an imbalance between yin and yang which leads to the hyperactivity or hypoactivity of yin and yang. The occurrence and the development of a disease are also related to zheng qi (body resistance or antipathogenic factors) and xie qi (pathogenic factors). The Yin-Yang theory can be used to generalize the interacting relations between body resistance and antipathogenic factors. Pathogenic factors are divided into yang-natured pathogenic factors and yin-natured pathogenic factors, while zheng qi includes yin essence and yang qi. Yang pathogenic factors may bring about hypoactivity of bodily yang which leads to injury of yin; a heat syndrome results. If the disease is caused by yin pathogenic factors, it may give rise to hypoactivity of yin followed by the injury of yang; a cold syndrome will result. When yang is deficient it fails to restrict yin in the balanced relationship between the two giving rise to xu (deficiency) which is a cold syndrome. The xu heat symptoms complex, however, is caused by a yin deficiency and yang excess. Pathological changes of disease are varied, but can be generally explained in terms of yin-yang imbalance: yin excess causes cold syndromes, yang preponderance leads to heat syndromes, yang deficiency causes cold syndromes, and yin deficiency leads to heat syndromes."http://tcmbasics.com/basics_yinyang_application.htm